Share Article

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) unveiled the winners of the 2012 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA®) program—a celebration of design excellence in products, sustainability, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts. Out of 660 finalists, 35 were honored with the Gold Award, while 71 received the Silver Award and 123 merited the Bronze Award.

2012 IDEA® Winners Reflect the Best in Design

“I believe the diversity of experts and opinions within this year’s jury shaped the debate and ultimately made a statement—not only about the best design of 2012, but also setting a clear direction for the future,” said IDEA’s 2012 Jury Chair Rhys Newman.

Herndon, VA (PRWEB)July 02, 2012

The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) unveiled the winners of the 2012 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA®) program—a celebration of design excellence in products, sustainability, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts. Out of 660 finalists, 35 were honored with the Gold Award, while 71 received the Silver Award and 123 merited the Bronze Award. IDSA will reveal the Best in Show, Curator’s Choice, People’s Choice and the Sustainability Award at the IDEA ceremony on Aug. 18 at its 2012 International Conference in Boston.

The top corporate winners were Samsung claiming seven awards, Belkin securing four and Coway and LG Electronics receiving three each.

Among design firms: IDEO received 13 awards; Smart Design captured six awards; Teague, fuseproject, Nectar Inc. and NewDealDesign LLC earned four each; and frog, New, Ziba and Ammunition won three respectively. Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, Calif., topped this year’s list of college wins with eight awards.

“I believe the diversity of experts and opinions within this year’s jury shaped the debate and ultimately made a statement—not only about the best design of 2012, but also setting a clear direction for the future,” said IDEA’s 2012 Jury Chair Rhys Newman, head of advanced projects at Nokia. “This year's jury awarded products that brought together hardware, software, service and experience. While there are many well-designed, innovative products, the exciting future is in the convergence of disciplines and expertise that span the digital and physical divide, ultimately resulting in useful and beautiful products for people.”

“In deliberating on the Best in Show, the important bellwether for where the cutting-edge concerns of the profession are, we witnessed the jurors turn from products that demonstrated great experiences to those that combined all the elements of new digital experiences into solutions that can transform behavior,” said IDSA’s Chair George McCain.”

Comprising the IDEA 2012 jury, 19 international design experts from design consultancies, corporations and universities spent weeks previewing entries online and two-and-a-half days of face-to-face debate and hands-on evaluation of the entries at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Mich. Judging criteria focused on eight areas of industrial design excellence: innovation; benefit to the user; benefit to society; benefit to the client; visual appeal and appropriate aesthetics; usability, emotional factors and unmet needs for the design research category; and internal factors, methods, strategic value and implementation for the design strategy category.

This is the fifth year for IDEA/Brasil. The program is organized by Objeto Brasil and is endorsed by IDSA to spur interest in design from Brazilian corporations as well as to heighten global awareness of Brazil’s design heritage. IDEA honored 13 winners from Brazil this year.

The partners and media sponsors for this year’s awards are Core 77, Curve magazine, facesofdesign.com, Microsoft and Yanko Design. This is the third year that The Henry Ford will house the IDEA winners in its permanent collection as it continues to tell the story of innovation.

About IDEA
Started in 1980 by IDSA, the International Design Excellence Awards program (IDEA®) fosters business and public understanding about the impact of design excellence on the quality of life and the economy. The IDEA program is considered one of the most preeminent design competitions in the nation with its scope and influence reaching far beyond U.S. boundaries.

About IDSA
With its roots reaching back to 1938 and founded in 1965, the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is the world’s oldest, largest, member-driven society for industrial design. IDSA represents professionals in product design, interaction design, human factors, ergonomics, design research, design management, universal design and related design fields. The society produces the renowned International Design Excellence Award® (IDEA) competition annually; hosts the International Design Conference and five regional conferences each year; and publishes Innovation, a quarterly journal on design, and designBytes, a weekly e-newsletter highlighting the latest headlines in the design world. IDSA's charitable arm, the Design Foundation, supports the dissemination of undergraduate and graduate scholarships annually to further industrial design education. The organization has more than 3,000 members in 29 professional chapters in the U.S. and internationally. For more information, visit http://www.idsa.org.